This invention relates to the use of orgotein to reduce the adverse effects of smoke inhalation.
Orgotein is the non-proprietary name assigned by the United States Adopted Name Council to members of a family or water-soluble protein congeners in drug form, i.e., the substantially pure injectable protein, substantially free from other proteins which are admixed or associated therewith. U.S. Pat. No. 3,758,682 claims pharmaceutical compositions comprising orgotein. Various uses of orgotein are claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,637,441; 3,773,928, 3,773,929 and 3,781,414.
In 1969 the bovine congener of the orgotein protein was discovered to be an enzyme which has the ability to catalyze the destruction of superoxide radicals via disproportionation into molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. The name, superoxide dismutase (SOD), was assigned to the protein on the basis of this enzyme activity. McCord, J. M. and Fridovich, I. (1969) J. Biol. Chem. 244, 6049-6055.
The superoxide radical is a toxic product of oxygen-based metabolism. SOD is a natural endocellular defense mechanism against such toxicity. Misra, H. P. and Fridovich, I., (1972) J. Biol. Chem. 247, 3170-3175; Fridovich, I., Advan. Enzymol. 41, 35-97 (1975).
Because naturally occurring orgotein is present endocellularly in the body, its function ordinarily is limited totally or primarily to the endocellular environment. When orgotein is administered topically or systemically, its activity is manifested exocellularly, thus producing physiological effects not manifested or manifested to a lesser degree by the patient's naturally occurring SOD.
It has long been known that the inhalation of smoke, whether by smoking tobacco or by the inhalation of smoke present in the air, produces toxic effects in mammals. See Leuchtenberger et al., Nature, Vol. 247, No. 5442, pp. 565-567, (1974), and cases cited therein. In the cases of heavy smoke inhalation, whether through excess tobacco smoking or breathing air having a high concentration of smoke particles therein, the toxic effects manifest themselves in a variety of ways, sometimes dramatically and acutely. Also, the inhalation of smoke particles at sub-acute toxic levels over long periods of time produces irreversible pathological changes in the lung tissues.
H. H. Seliger et al., Science 1974, 185: 253-256, reported that cigarette smoke contains high concentrations of unstable molecules that react with oxygen to produce chemiluminescense.
It is an object of this invention to provide methods for reducing the toxic effects of smoke inhalation. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.